Brentley Lothamer (left), of the Northern Indiana National Weather Service office presents Greg Stone with a NWS Cooperative Observation Service award for his 15 years of weather observations from the Francesville area. Stone began recording the daily high and low temperatures, and precipitaton for the National Weather Service in 1998.

Stone was recently recognized with a National Weather Service Cooperative Observation Service award for his 15 years of service.

Stone began taking weather observations for the National Weather Service because the city of Francesville had put in a sewer system with two lagoons and needed to keep track of the rainfall for operations to send on to the State of Indiana.

So he contacted TV stations in South Bend and Lafayette and they suggested contacting the National Weather Service. Stone did just that, and since the National Weather Service was looking for a new weather observer in the Francesville area, Stone was set up as an official National Weather Service Cooperative weather observing site.

In July 1999 and July 2012, he recorded a high temperature of 99 degrees. On the other end of the thermometer, in January 2009 he recorded a low temperature of -23 degrees. In July 2003, he recorded 15.27 inches of rain and in January 1999 a total of 27.2 inches of snowfall was recorded.

The data collected is now able to be ingested daily into each new weather model run along with helping to paint an aerial picture of how much rainfall/snowfall has fallen in the area. The data is also used to build a climatic database of the United States.

Brentley Lothamer, Observation Program Leader, says the National Weather Service is "very grateful to Mr. Stone for his continued dedication in taking weather observations."

The National Weather Service Cooperative Program spans all 50 states collecting weather observations from numerous volunteer weather observers for the climate database, weather forecasts, and for the protection of life and property.